Scottish artist, Callum Innes began exhibiting in the UK in the mid-to-late 1980s, establishing an international reputation that gathered momentum in the following decade. The artist developed a distinctive language of painting built around the delicate balance between creation and erasure. Working across a number of series that he continually revisits, his practice explores the possibilities of colour, surface and the unpredictable nature of paint.

In his celebrated Exposed Paintings, Innes applies a single, carefully mixed colour to the canvas before systematically removing sections with turpentine. Described by the artist as a process of “unpainting”, pigment is dissolved and washed away, leaving behind subtle veils and traces of colour. What appears initially as a restrained monochromatic field reveals remarkable complexity, bearing the history of both its making and unmaking.

There is a compelling tension within these works. They appear calm, elegant and resolved, yet their surfaces are the consequence of an inherently uncertain process. Innes harnesses this interplay between control and chance, presence and absence, to create paintings of extraordinary subtlety and quiet authority.

Innes’ international standing is reflected in his representation across many of the world’s leading public and private collections. His work is held by Tate and the British Museum, London; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, among numerous other significant collections.

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